Electricity + Control April 2019

TRANSFORMERS + SUBSTATIONS

The market for transformers and miniature substations typically requires units to suit specific sites and applications. In this regard, WEG Transformers Africa offers customers the advantage of the dedicated jobbing production line at its Wadeville manufacturing facility, where it produces transformers and miniature substations custom designed and manufactured to meet individual job requirements and specific quality standards. Transformers and miniature substations to specification

Take Note! WTA Wadeville produces transformers from200 kVA up to 10 MVA. The facility also produc- es miniature substations from 100 kVA up to 1 600 kVA/22 kV.

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A s part of the Zest WEG Group, which op- erates across sub-Saharan Africa, and of the global WEG Group, WEG Transformers Africa (WTA) also offers customers the benefits of its own experience in this field and its access to group resources, such as the global transmission and distribution design database which is held at the WEG Group’s headquarters in Brazil. WTA has a long history of manufacturing trans- formers and miniature substations for industry and utilities in South Africa and other African countries. Based in Gauteng, the company operates two specialised manufacturing facilities: producing the bigger power transformers, up to 50 MVA/132 kV, at its Heidelberg plant, and smaller transformers, from 200 kVA up to 10 MVA, as well as miniature substations at its Wadeville factory. E+C visitedWTAWadeville to do a factory walk- through. We spoke to Stuart Brown, Sales Team Leader, and Munya Gatsi, Miniature Substations Designer, to learn more about the company’s spe- cialist capabilities in design, engineering, manufac- ture and testing of the equipment it produces. Transformers Operating in the local market over more than 40 years, WTA has established a strong customer base across diverse industries, from mining to manufacturing and including national and munici- pal power utilities – Eskom, Johannesburg’s City Power, Tshwane Power, and others – as well as Transnet’s freight rail division and South Africa’s passenger rail agency, PRASA. Beyond the national standard, SANS 780:2009, for transformers, WTA has developed the capabili- ty to meet the respective standards, specifications

and test requirements that may differ from one customer to another. It is worth noting that SANS standards for trans- formers and miniature substations are higher than most international standards, and Eskom’s stand- ards. Eskom requires, for example, a 25-year life- cycle on equipment supplied – applicable to trans- formers and miniature substations – a specification that exceeds those of any other utility. WTA sup- plies equipment to Eskom standards.The company also has the experience to meet specific variations in requirements stipulated by the different industri- al customers and municipal utilities that it supplies. WTA imports its own grain orientated core steel which is then processed in Wadeville using a high tech core cutting machine. It uses either cop- per or aluminium windings, to meet specific cus- tomers’ needs and preferences. Windings, core

The fully equipped test facility at WTA's Wadeville operation can conduct all routine tests as stipulated in SANS 780 and IEC 60076 specifications.

28 Electricity + Control

APRIL 2019